Application of Meshless Methods for Thermal Analysis

Many numerical and analytical schemes exist for solving heat transfer problems. The meshless method is a particularly attractive method that is receiving attention in the engineering and scientific modeling communities. The meshless method is simple, accurate, and requires no polygonalisation. In this study, we focus on the application of meshless methods using radial basis functions (RBFs) — which are simple to implement — for thermal problems. Radial basis functions are the natural generalization of univariate polynomial splines to a multivariate setting that work for arbitrary geometry with high dimensions. RBF functions depend only on the distance from some center point. Using distance functions, RBFs can be easily implemented to model heat transfer in arbitrary dimension or symmetry

A Meshfree Generalized Finite Difference Method for Surface PDEs

In this paper, we propose a novel meshfree Generalized Finite Difference Method (GFDM) approach to discretize PDEs defined on manifolds. Derivative approximations for the same are done directly on the tangent space, in a manner that mimics the procedure followed in volume-based meshfree GFDMs. As a result, the proposed method not only does not require a mesh, it also does not require an explicit reconstruction of the manifold. In contrast to existing methods, it avoids the complexities of dealing with a manifold metric, while also avoiding the need to solve a PDE in the embedding space. A major advantage of this method is that all developments in usual volume-based numerical methods can be directly ported over to surfaces using this framework. We propose discretizations of the surface gradient operator, the surface Laplacian and surface Diffusion operators. Possibilities to deal with anisotropic and discontinous surface properties (with large jumps) are also introduced, and a few practical applications are presented

A meshless, integration-free, and boundary-only RBF technique

Based on the radial basis function (RBF), non-singular general solution and dual reciprocity method (DRM), this paper presents an inherently meshless, integration-free, boundary-only RBF collocation techniques for numerical solution of various partial differential equation systems. The basic ideas behind this methodology are very mathematically simple. In this study, the RBFs are employed to approximate the inhomogeneous terms via the DRM, while non-singular general solution leads to a boundary-only RBF formulation for homogenous solution. The present scheme is named as the boundary knot method (BKM) to differentiate it from the other numerical techniques. In particular, due to the use of nonsingular general solutions rather than singular fundamental solutions, the BKM is different from the method of fundamental solution in that the former does no require the artificial boundary and results in the symmetric system equations under certain conditions. The efficiency and utility of this new technique are validated through a number of typical numerical examples. Completeness concern of the BKM due to the only use of non-singular part of complete fundamental solution is also discussed

Modeling elastic wave propagation in fluid-filled boreholes drilled in nonhomogeneous media: BEM – MLPG versus BEM-FEM coupling

The efficiency of two coupling formulations, the boundary element method (BEM)-meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) versus the BEM-finite element method (FEM), used to simulate the elastic wave propagation in fluid-filled boreholes generated by a blast load, is compared. The longitudinal geometry is assumed to be invariant in the axial direction (2.5D formulation). The material properties in the vicinity of the borehole are assumed to be nonhomogeneous as a result of the construction process and the ageing of the material. In both models, the BEM is used to tackle the propagation within the fluid domain inside the borehole and the unbounded homogeneous domain. The MLPG and the FEM are used to simulate the confined, damaged, nonhomogeneous, surrounding borehole, thus utilizing the advantages of these methods in modeling nonhomogeneous bounded media. In both numerical techniques the coupling is accomplished directly at the nodal points located at the common interfaces. Continuity of stresses and displacements is imposed at the solid–solid interface, while continuity of normal stresses and displacements and null shear stress are prescribed at the fluid–solid interface. The performance of each coupled BEM-MLPG and BEM-FEM approach is determined using referenced results provided by an analytical solution developed for a circular multi-layered subdomain. The comparison of the coupled techniques is evaluated for different excitation frequencies, axial wavenumbers and degrees of freedom (nodal points).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIA2013-43085-PCentro Informático Científico de Andalucía (CICA

Radial Basis Functions: Biomedical Applications and Parallelization

Radial basis function (RBF) is a real-valued function whose values depend only on the distances between an interpolation point and a set of user-specified points called centers. RBF interpolation is one of the primary methods to reconstruct functions from multi-dimensional scattered data. Its abilities to generalize arbitrary space dimensions and to provide spectral accuracy have made it particularly popular in different application areas, including but not limited to: finding numerical solutions of partial differential equations (PDEs), image processing, computer vision and graphics, deep learning and neural networks, etc. The present thesis discusses three applications of RBF interpolation in biomedical engineering areas: (1) Calcium dynamics modeling, in which we numerically solve a set of PDEs by using meshless numerical methods and RBF-based interpolation techniques; (2) Image restoration and transformation, where an image is restored from its triangular mesh representation or transformed under translation, rotation, and scaling, etc. from its original form; (3) Porous structure design, in which the RBF interpolation used to reconstruct a 3D volume containing porous structures from a set of regularly or randomly placed points inside a user-provided surface shape. All these three applications have been investigated and their effectiveness has been supported with numerous experimental results. In particular, we innovatively utilize anisotropic distance metrics to define the distance in RBF interpolation and apply them to the aforementioned second and third applications, which show significant improvement in preserving image features or capturing connected porous structures over the isotropic distance-based RBF method. Beside the algorithm designs and their applications in biomedical areas, we also explore several common parallelization techniques (including OpenMP and CUDA-based GPU programming) to accelerate the performance of the present algorithms. In particular, we analyze how parallel programming can help RBF interpolation to speed up the meshless PDE solver as well as image processing. While RBF has been widely used in various science and engineering fields, the current thesis is expected to trigger some more interest from computational scientists or students into this fast-growing area and specifically apply these techniques to biomedical problems such as the ones investigated in the present work

Software for evaluating probability-based integrity of reinforced concrete structures

In recent years, much research work has been carried out in order to obtain a more controlled durability and long-term performance of concrete structures in chloride containing environment. In particular, the development of new procedures for probability-based durability design has proved to give a more realistic basis for the analysis. Although there is still a lack of relevant data, this approach has been successfully applied to several new concrete structures, where requirements to a more controlled durability and service life have been specified. A probability-based durability analysis has also become an important and integral part of condition assessment of existing concrete structures in chloride containing environment. In order to facilitate the probability-based durability analysis, a software named DURACON has been developed, where the probabilistic approach is based on a Monte Carlo simulation. In the present paper, the software for the probability-based durability analysis is briefly described and used in order to demonstrate the importance of the various durability parameters affecting the durability of concrete structures in chloride containing environment

MLPG_R Method for Numerical Simulation of 2D Breaking Waves

Following our previous work, the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerin method based on Rankine source solution (MLPG_R) will be extended in this paper to deal with breaking waves. For this purpose, the governing equation for pressure is improved and a new technique called Mixed Particle Number Density and Auxiliary Function Method (MPAM) is suggested for identifying the free surface particles. Due to complexity of the problem, two dimensional (2D) breaking waves are only concerned here. Various cases are investigated and some numerical results are compared with experimental data available in literature to show the newly developed method is robust